[CR]Bike Shop Damage

(Example: Events:BVVW)

From: "Norris Lockley" <Norris.Lockley@btopenworld.com>
To: <classicrendezvous@bikelist.org>
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 10:51:31 +0100
Subject: [CR]Bike Shop Damage

I reckon every framebuilder and bike shop mechanic has suffered many a time..and unfortunately committed little pecadillos on other people's dream machines. I never spray my own frames.. trie dhard..but never reall got the quality finish that I thought my metalwork deserved, so I used to use Bob Jackson, Ellis-Briggs, occasionally Argos.. and very often C&G (Liverpool). Carriage costs were always a heavy item on the bill so the bulk of the work was done by Jacko or Jack briggs. Trouble was that they bought their paint from a local manufacturer who recommended "obliterating" white for most finished except the special effects. Although this was matt it was often very difficult to get the colour coats to bond and the oven temperature was VERY critical, too low and the finish was too soft, too high and the top coats cracked of as soon as an allen xey was within two feet of the frame. Tightening seat posts in lugs that had "ears with the old-fashioned bolts was the worst operation.. and we ended up playing "... draw the short straw" in the worhshop to find the poor unfortunate who had to perform this often final task.

Setting up brakes meant fitting wheels in place however temporarily.. and problems arose with both underbaked and pverbaked paints. I find I could overcome the chipping/marking problems by slipping what are called "strengthening holes" over here in the office stationary trade. These are simply reinforcement washers used for strengthening the holes punched in pieces of paper filed in a loose-leaf ring binder. I stick these onto both sides of a drop-out when assembling a bike, them remove them later. Usually over here they are "lick and stick! variety ' with the adhseive being water soluble. Sounds fiddly, but it's not.. and in any case I'd rather fiddle for a couple of minutes than rick exposing areas of "obliterating white"

I suppose I cut my teeth on varnish-fix transfers.. protected by several layers of lacquer. In recent years transfers/decals have often been applid over the top of the finish and without protection..and as we all knowm these are all too easily crunched up in a bike assembly stand that clamps around the down tube. Years ago I hit upon the very simple idea of wrapping a pices of clean fairly thick polythene sheet over the decals, making sure that at the overlap of the sheet there were no "seams" sticking up. I have found that this works perfectly and that the clamps can be used quite tightly.

However as some other Lister mentioned, I also use the FRench system of hanging bikes from the beams in my workshop. I used to help the French builder Geliano during my holidays in France,>He always hung his bike from a type of hook clipped under the bars with a different shaped one under the saddle.. which meant of course tightening in the seat post.. that dreaded operation. In recent years I have made myself a large inverted "V" device which hooks under most top-tubes and supports the bike well. The "V" has polythene tubing over the supporting hooks, and I keep toying with the idea of brazing clamps on at these points to reduce swaying from the bike.

None of this is ideal but it's all a lot better and cheaper than resprays and hassle.

Nooris Lockley.. form Settle Uk.. where Winter appears to have arrived prematurely